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Team Penske’s 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season was one of perseverance, significant change and, unfortunately, a rash of misfortune for drivers Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, as well as their respective teams. New faces are settling into key roles as the team begins preparations for the 2026 season. Yet, after ending the season with two wins in the final three races, Team Penske is poised to put 2025 in the rearview mirror and return to its winning ways when the new series schedule begins March 1 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet team began the 2025 season on a high note by winning the pole position at St. Petersburg season opener. The effort added to McLaughlin’s total as the team’s career pole position leader with his 70^th pole award. Though a first-lap incident changed the strategy for the Team Penske trio, Newgarden and the No. 2 Astemo Chevrolet were able to secure a podium finish at St. Pete with McLaughlin finishing in the top five to get Team Penske off to a solid start in 2025.

Over the next two race weekends at the Thermal Club and the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Power led the charge with a sixth-place and fifth-place finish, respectively, in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. McLaughlin continued his mastery of Barber Motorsports Park as he followed his wins in 2023 and 2024 with a third-place effort at the Alabama road course in April.

As the series descended on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) for the month of May, Team Penske drivers were well positioned for another strong season despite not having visited Victory Lane. Yet, as the checkered flag fell on the Sonsio Grand Prix at the IMS road course with two more top-five finishes by Power and McLaughlin, the results from Indianapolis 500 qualifying the following weekend left a lasting impact on Team Penske’s 2025 season.  

The team had high expectations for the 109^th running of the Indianapolis 500 following wins in the previous two editions of the historic race, with determined efforts by Newgarden and the No. 2 Chevrolet team. All three Team Penske Chevrolets made the Firestone Fast 12 for a chance to run for the pole position, but McLaughlin suffered heavy damage in a practice incident on Sunday morning of qualifying weekend and the team elected to take the 12th-place starting position and forgo McLaughlin’s four-lap qualifying run.  

Just minutes before making their single, four-lap qualifying run, the cars of Power and Newgarden were pulled from the line and returned to their garage stalls. INDYCAR officials determined that the rear attenuators on both cars had been modified.

As a result of the infractions, both Power and Newgarden were initially sent to the back of the Firestone Fast 12. However, after further discussion by INDYCAR officials, it was decided that all three of the team’s cars would be placed at the rear of the field for the race, severely hampering Newgarden’s push to become the first driver to win three-consecutive Indy 500s, Power’s goal to become a two-time winner and McLaughlin’s quest to earn his first victory at Indy.

In the leadup to Indy 500 race weekend, the team announced that top team leaders and race strategists Tim Cindric, Ron Ruzewski and Kyle Moyer were all relieved of their duties following the penalties assessed after qualifying. This swift and unprecedented decision put the team in a position to adjust its leadership structure on the eve of the biggest motorsports event in the world.

Despite the change in leadership and the issues that befell his teammates during the race, Newgarden charged through the field and he was in position to compete for a third-consecutive win in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” He was running in the sixth position when a fuel-pressure issue discovered during the team’s fifth pit stop of the day ended his chances prematurely.

The team’s winless streak continued through the summer months as several opportunities slipped away through incidents not of their own making. At World Wide Technology Raceway in June, Power earned his 71st career pole position and each of the three teams had legitimate shots to win before all three cars retired from the race due to a series of misfortunes they had little control over. At Iowa Speedway in July, Newgarden won the pole position for the first race of the doubleheader weekend and led a total of 304 laps in both races but had to settle for a runner-up finish in the first 275-lap event as the high mark of the weekend.

However, the team’s collective speed never waned as the new leadership dynamic began to find its footing. At the 15th round of the championship at Portland International Raceway, Power put forth a dominant drive that he had become known for throughout this career by leading 78 laps en route to his 45th career victory. In the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway, Newgarden secured one of the biggest wins of his career at his hometown venue to send the team into the offseason with much-needed momentum.

“We all had to dig deep this season. No one was coming to save us,” stated Newgarden. “To win two of the last three races was so important to everyone. I think it showed that we had weathered a significant storm and we were still standing.”

Perhaps the biggest Team Penske news of 2025 was the departure of Power, the longtime stalwart behind the wheel of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, shortly after the season concluded. A member of the team since 2009, Power earned 42 of his 45 career victories, and 65 of his series-record 71 pole positions with the team. Team Penske welcomed 24-year-old David Malukas as just the second driver in the history of the No. 12 Verizon Chevy as Power moved on to new opportunities. Malukas, a native of Chicago and one of INDYCAR’s young rising stars, finished second in the 2025 Indianapolis 500 and he looks to make the most of his opportunity beginning next season.

A new schedule structure for 2026 will allow teams to build on early-season success with four races in the month of March – a drastic change from previous seasons that featured breaks in between the first four races of the year. Team Penske has a total of 28 wins at three (St. Petersburg, Phoenix and Barber) of those first four tracks, with the fourth being the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington.

“The 2025 season was undoubtedly one of the toughest I’ve ever gone through,” said McLaughlin. “It really felt like four or five seasons worth of change, bad luck and mistakes all rolled into one. You definitely saw us come back to our normal pace with the results we expect late in the year. Everything we went through from May on will have us ready to hit the ground running at St. Pete.”

The 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg will be broadcast live on FOX on Sunday, March 1.